How to turn a school awards ceremony into a girls' night out

So a few days ago I received this little piece of prestigious paper in the post. If you can't read the tiny little ant writing on the picture below, it's basically an invite to my school's awards ceremony. I had apparently been nominated for an award! I couldn't think what for, though; I knew it certainly wasn't for attendance or punctuality (those of you who know me will understand why this is so). 

So tonight the event took place. I donned a very cute black dress I borrowed from a friend, did my hair and makeup (I even wore heels!) and hit the road with my friend Katy who was acting in loco parentis (my parents live in Ukraine and so couldn't make tonight!). We rolled up at the Leas Cliff Hall after walking through a tunnel from the car park that smelled of pee and trotted down into the foyer, bobbing around with fruit cocktails, taking pictures and talking to people waiting to be ushered into the ''Grand Ball Room''. 

It was spectacular! Live jazz, balloons, lights turned down low... our tables even had crisps and sausage rolls on them! Katy and I were seated on a table with two PE teachers (one of whom teaches my anatomy and psychology class). Another person was supposed to sit at our table with their two guests, but they didn't come so it was kinda just me and Katy sitting between two teachers!

Katy and I made small chat with the teachers and we ate snacks while Katy told me how happy she would be if Michael Buble was forever silenced (sad times). The awards thus commenced after a very stern Mr. Norman opened the ceremony. He initially spoke into the microphone and then got off stage and shouted instructions for students to go to the side of the stage to wait for their awards, completely defeating the object of a microphone. He did this several times throughout the evening and even closed the event standing just in front of the stage shouting, "THANK YOU FOR COMING. HAVE A NICE EVENING," in a very army-like manner. 

Our head teacher said a few words about education before the awards were given out. His name is Mario Something-Italian and when he got up to speak I was really surprised to find out that he doesn't speak like Mario from Mario Kart. In fact, had I not known his name was Mario, I might have even been inclined to think that he was not Italian at all or even foreign, for that matter. 

The award I was nominated for was given pretty much at the beginning. I tried not to trip up the stairs with my ridiculous shoes as Mr. Reygate (who was at my table) called me and some other nominees up onto the stage. I stood their awkwardly as Mr. Reygate read out our names, mispronouncing mine of course, and gave us each a certificate. Nine students from each faculty (mine being Well Being) had been chosen from across the school and three people got the ''big'' awards for being the overall best. I... didn't get an overall best award but hey! I got a certificate and a handshake! For being at the school only 3 months, I am pretty chuffed that I got nominated. (Although they did spell my surname "Trolhymenko" on the certificate as opposed to "Trokhymenko".)

I have since made the L look like a K

The rest of the evening was spent taking selfies with Katy and making comments about everyone and everything. The giggling got so bad that the teachers from sixth form who were sitting in front of us kept turning their heads and raising their eyebrows. Oh dear! :3 Sitting between two teachers did make me nervous though when Katy told me about her school days being the naughty kid in class who would make noises until the teacher would send her out. I imagine my teachers both sat there pretending not to hear a word....

My favourite part of the night (apart from going to the toilet and doing a mirror selfie!!!) was the dance assessment. Although a lot the dancers did look a bit lost and passionless (sorry, guys #thetruthhurts), our friend Jordan was up there dancing to "I Believe" and "I Wanna Be Like You-oo-oo" with much gusto. The award for "ponytail with the most personality" would have gone to Jordan were I allowed to give such an award. 

All in all it was a great night. Once we had been dismissed by Mr. Norman and had wiped all the crumbs from the snack plates, Katy and I made our way back through the pee-smelling tunnel, in which we came across some weed-smoking hobos, weaved through the cars in the Leas car park and found our limousine (I joke). Interestingly enough, down in the car park we came across some 30-year-old-looking figure-roller-bladers (?) and a man with a cat on a lead. Actually as I was getting into the car, the man kept cooing to his cat so I and waving at me, so being the nice person I am, waved back and smiled. #sohumble

Katy and I then drove off into the night and hit the town. We partied hard in our amazing, glamorous outfits until the sun rose over the eastern horizon...

PAH.

Yeah, right. But we did dreamily discuss it in the car on the way home. We did, however, come to the conclusion that, were we to go and "party" in a pub/bar, we would probably end up crocheting and drinking beer in a corner booth somewhere private the whole time... (that, admittedly, does sound like a perfect girls' night out to me! ;D)

Yay for selfies in a tacky frame! ✌

Why I do CU at my school

For the past 3 weeks I have been doing a Christian Union in the sixth form part of my school, Pent Valley. Over the last couple months I have had the opportunity to get to know people who are involved in running CU at the two grammars schools in town, and after spending some time listening to their ideas I felt encouraged to go ahead and start one at my school. Unlike the grammar schools Pent Valley hasn't got a legacy of CU, so starting out has been really quite scary for me. 

I didn't know what to expect from the Head of Sixth form when I went to his office to ask if I could start CU up. He turned out to be quite enthusiastic, much to my relief, and said to come back to him when I had a better idea of what I wanted to do and he'd give me a room. So I did. My friend, Jim, and I put some posters together to stick around Dyson (the sixth form part of the school) and I got a room. 

An example of our posters ^_^

That first week I was scared stiff. The question going round and round in my head all morning was, "Why are you going this, Laura? Why?!" I was so nervous I barely ate (which is a bit deal because I never skip a meal) and I went into that room half expecting no one to show up. 

Three people came: two of my friends joined me for lunch and another person who was already in the room. We got talking and the fact that I'm a Christian came up. We ended up debating God's existence and who He might actually be, and, as I was a bit tense due to nerves, I worried that I might have come off as a bit aggressive and as a bit of a bible-basher. Thankfully we ended the small debate on good terms and the person I was talking to said, 'Don't worry. This thing might actually become quite big'. Admittedly I felt a bit rubbish after the first go, but when I told my friends and family how it went they were all very enthusiastic and encouraged me to carry on. 

The second week I had mixed feelings. On the one hand I felt like what I was doing was a rude intrusion on everyone's lunchtime; on the other, I had peace and confidence in my heart that begged me to move forward and have another go. In the end a couple of people I know from around school came along and about five of us in all sat down and had lunch together. We had a great time just chatting and sharing our views about politics and faith and what we deem right and wrong. Although a lot of the topics we covered were quite heavy, e.g. gay marriage, no one got angry or frustrated and the time we spent together was really relaxed and laid-back. 

This week was the third go and it really blew me away. Not including me, eight people came along and six people stayed for the whole lunchtime! What really stood out to me was the fact that some of the people in the room didn't even know each other despite going to the same school for years. I have to say, I didn't know three of the people that came along this time and I initially felt kinda awkward introducing myself and being like ''Welcome to Christian Union. Would you like a biscuit?". But it broke the ice and we all got on quite well. 

So why do I do CU? 

Perhaps I'll start with why I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it to create an exclusive club for religious people - you don't have to be a Christian to come along. I'm not doing it to convert people and force my faith upon them. I'm not doing it because I think I've got everything right and everyone else is 100% wrong. 

I do CU because I want to get to know people and I want to provide an opportunity for people to get to know each other. I want to create a space where people can relax and be challenged in a positive way about why they believe what they believe. I want to share the hope I have in Jesus with people and explain to them what being a Christian means to me. I want CU to be a place people can come and be loved as they are. 

This week I asked the group that gathered what they thought of Christians and what they thought makes someone a Christian. I had the unique opportunity to share with everyone how real God is in my life and that I am a Christian not because of my very Christian background, but because of Jesus and what He's done for me. Being a Christian is all about putting my faith in God and nothing to do with me trying to be a good person and doing good things to earn brownie points in heaven. 

I am very honoured to run CU at my school, whether two or ten people come. At the end of the day the most important thing is that people hear about God's love and that CU is a place where they experience it too. 

We Love Folkestone: Taking Action

So 2 weeks ago we hosted the We Love Folkestone (WLF) event at our church (you can read about that here). At this event we challenged a bunch of young people from different churches around Folkestone to do intentional acts of kindness in their communities to show Jesus' love and start changing Folkestone. 

In my last post I mentioned that a group of us put our heads together at the WLF opening event and came up with the idea of putting a sofa in the middle of town centre and serving free teas and coffees as a way of starting conversations with people in the area and potentially building relationships. During half term we all met up in KFC (with a few new additions to the group, I happy to say!) and discussed how to best approach the idea.

My friend Jim called the council during the week concerning this idea and we received positive feedback and a go-ahead for whenever we wanted to do it. However, because of Christmas coming up and an increase in bad weather, we decided to postpone this project until February half term. Everyone was very enthusiastic and I really look forward to seeing how it all comes together! 

Jim made a promotional video for acts of kindness for the WLF event. In this video, preparation is shown for an act of kindness: a board that says "Good job Subway guy!". The idea behind this was to go to the man who stands with the Subway sign near our shopping centre and show him some appreciation.

The Monday after WLF event Jim and I went into town to fulfil the act of kindness. We marched into town, board and video camera in hand, unsure of whether the guy would even be there and if he was, what his reaction would be.

We went into Starbucks and bought some coffee and a chocolate coin for the Subway man (he was there finally) and I turned on the camera and filmed from a distance as Jim went over to the guy and offered him the coffee and some encouragement.

Dude didn't speak English. 

He was like, "No coffee. No chocolate." He couldn't read the sign either and had to call someone over to explain to him what was going on. It was a bit awkward but at least we did it. As we walked away from the man, I turned round and gave him a thumbs-up and smile, hoping that despite his suspicions about our act he would understand that we meant well. 

Admittedly it was tempting to become discouraged, but looking back it was actually a very positive thing. Jim wrote this on the WLF page: 

I didn't anticipate the reaction my gesture would get from the people sitting outside Starbucks. Everyone saw what was happening and received it well. They thought it was really cool that I'd taken the time to notice someone people normally ignore. That really spoke to me. I was just thinking about the subway guy but actually as I did my act of kindness, there were others that looked on... it made me realise that our witness can travel further than we intend and that thought should spur us on to witness more. In one sense my attempt to do something good for the Subway guy back fired but in reality God multiplied its positive effect because it was seen by others and positively affected them. It was a good opportunity to say that I was from a local church by way of giving context for what we were doing.  

In the end I gave the coffee and chocolate to one of the triennial hosts, they too have to stand in one spot and the lady I gave it to was very happy to receive it.

It was a little awkward standing there with camera, I have to say.

Since doing the first official WLF act of kindness with Jim, there has been great response amongst the youth in Folkestone. At our meet-up in KFC with the sofa project group one guy came up with the idea of getting some musicians together and offering to jam with a man in town centre who often busks outside Debenhams by shaking some maracas. 

We decided to give it try. Me and my two friends Mung and Simeon all got together to practice a couple of songs that we could play with the maraca man were he to let us join him. Jim, who came along to record us, went out to scout for the maraca man and ask him if he would be okay with us joining him while we practiced.

He was nowhere to be found. 

However, that was not the end of it. Jim came across a homeless man sitting outside of Debenhams collecting pennies in his beanie. He asked the man if he would be okay if a bunch of us came and busked for a bit and give him the money that we collected from it. He smiled and said we could do whatever we wanted. 

I have to say that initially I was very nervous. Not only did Simeon and Mung turn to be much better musicians that I had expected, but I am not a performer by nature and had never busked in my life, so going out and forcing my lame guitar and singing skills on the people of Folkestone was absolutely terrifying. I sucked it up though, refusing to chicken out, and got playing. 

It was great fun! We managed to gather a small crowd of spectators and a couple of people sang along as they walked by. In half an hour we raised just over £2. We went over to the homeless man and gave it to him, wishing him a nice rest of the day. He received it but was rather indifferent and expressed no particular emotion to what was going on. Here's the video Jim put together: 

These are not the only 2 acts of kindness that have been done in the last couple of weeks. One youth group gave out free chocolates in town and another cleaned graffiti off of some local buildings. Multiple people have been nominated to do singular acts of kindness, too - one boy in our youth group gave a lollipop lady some chocolate. 

What we are doing is nothing extravagant. I don't imagine a lot of people remember what we have done, but I believe that if we carry on being consistent in our kindness in groups and as individuals, we will start turning heads and touching hearts.

None of this is about us. Doing this does not give us Christian brownie points or make us better than others. Our passion is to see Folkestone changed by love - a beautiful, sacrificial love that comes only from God. This challenge to kindness is changing each one of us the more we do it. It is making us more aware of those around us and changing the way we look at people. 

Folkestone is more than the buildings and the landscape that we see - it's the people that live in it. We are the people of Folkestone and any change that happens in us is the beginning of a change in Folkestone.